- Yes
- No
TL;DR:
Bluewater vessel, Egyptian Project 30bis destroyer with a large calibre autocannon replacing the 85mm, and extra radars.
History:
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet government was a strong ally of Egypt’s Nasser government, and supported it during the Suez Crisis and Six-Day War against Israel. This support included supplying the nation with warships, from fast attack craft to destroyers, which Egypt would put to good use, scoring the first ever anti ship missile kill with a Soviet missile boat shortly after the Six-Day War. In 1967 the Egyptian Navy purchased 2 old destroyers from the Soviet Union, which would be modernized before delivery. The two ships would be called Dumyāṭ and El Nasser, formally the Project 30Bis destroyers Bessmenniy and Otchayanniy respectively of the Black Sea Fleet.
Bessmenniy was laid down in 1951 at the 61 Communards Shipyard in Nikolayev, and was commissioned in 1952. The ship had an uneventful service, with its most notable events being a visit to Yugoslavia and Albania. At the end of 1956 it was decommissioned and mothballed, but was recommissioned 3 years later. In 1967 the ship underwent a modernization to Project 30BA in preparation for its transfer to Egypt. The secondary 85mm turret was removed and replaced with a quad 57mm autocannon, some other AA guns were removed to make space for a modern tracking radar, ASW rocket launchers were fitted, and its radars replaced with new ones. It was delivered to Egypt in 1968 shortly after the Six-Day War, and commissioned into the fleet as Dumyāṭ (Damietta). In 1969 it and El Nasser bombarded Israeli forces on the Sinai coast, inflicting some losses. They were attacked by Israeli aircraft as they returned to Alexandria, with the Egyptians claiming the destruction of 2 planes. The ship would serve until 1985, when it was disarmed and scrapped.
Specifications: (1968)
Armament:
2x2 130mm B-2LM (600 rounds?)
1x4 57mm ZIF-75
2x2 37mm V-11
2x2 25mm 2M-3M
2x5 533mm TT
2x16 RBU-2500 ASWRL
2 DCTDisplacement:
2556 tons standard
3200 tons fullLength: 120.5m
Beam: 12m
Draft: 3.9m
Propulsion: 2 TV-6 geared steam turbines with 4 KV-30 boilers, 60 000 hp, driving 2 shafts
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h)
Range: 3400nmi (at 15 knots)
Crew: ~286
Systems:
KDP2-4L Fire Director
Zalp Fire control radar
Fut-B tracking radar
Fut-N Search radar
Images:
Drawing:
Sources:
Berezhnoy S. S. (1995). Sovetskiy VMF, 1945–1995 (pp. 20–25). Morskaya Kollektsiya
https://web.archive.org/web/20120307115952/http://www.atrinaflot.narod.ru/2_mainclassships.htm
http://russianships.info/eng/warships/project_30bis.htm
https://www.kchf.ru/eng/ship/destroyers/bessmenny.htm
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dimyāṭ_(ship,_1952)
http://forums.airbase.ru/2022/10/t87107_79--eskadrennye-minonostsy-proektov-30k-30-bis-31-i-modifikatsii.html#p11291197 - I am always astonished how forums will just have hi-res images of obscure stuff